Ponmala

The crusade is back – in Kerala as cold war. The bugle for it was sounded by the Syro Malabar Synod on 15 January 2020. The Synod issued a statement alleging that scores of Christian women from Kerala were being lured into the trap of Islamic state and taken to the Middle East for terrorist activities. Church authorities claimed they have during counselling sessions recorded more than 40 cases of love jihad. Many chose not to complain to the police fearing for their life and of their family members and also public defamation. A pastoral letter warning Catholics of the danger of love jihad was read out on 19 January 2020 in all the parishes of Syro Malabar Church. And from then on, too much bad blood has been spilled between the most influential section of Kerala’s Christian community and numerically stronger Muslim community.

Love Jihad was a term coined by the BJP to raise an alarm about love-traps laid by Muslim youth to covert Hindu girls, especially in Uttar Pradesh. Just last week, the UP police claimed that their anti-terror squad have arrested two Muslim clerics for illegal religious conversion of at least 1000 underprivileged Hindu youth. An investigation conducted by Times of India revealed that all of them “had converted on their own years ago and not under duress.”

After a thorough investigation, the union government’s NIA and the Kerala police – its head then was a Christian – came to the conclusion that no proofs were available for any group indulging in love jihad. The Kerala High Court agreed with them. The Church authorities point out that the court verdict came under a legal constraint – the absence of the term love jihad in the law. Be that as it may, it is important now to look into the root causes for two communities that had peacefully co-existed and formed a formidable political block for long clashing in a cold war Crusade.

Both Christianity and Islam arrived by ship and thrived in lush green Kerala. Through sheer hard work and a penchant for education, the Syrian Christians became a comparatively well-off community. On the other hand, a few leaders like Mohammed Koya had to battle resistance from clergy to make education accessible to Muslims. While the Syrians wholeheartedly embraced family planning, the Muslims resisted it. As a result, within 6 decades the Christian population got reduced to 18.38% from 20% and the Muslim population shot up from 18% to 26.56 percent. For the Muslims, poverty boom accompanied population boom. As a result, there was earlier perceptible economic disparity between the two communities. But the Gulf boom, which was accompanied by smuggling boom and hawala boom, has put the two communities on par economically and educationally.

The Syrian Christian youth who have migrated mostly to Western countries and their future generations are as good as lost to Kerala. On the other hand, Muslims who have migrated mostly to the Gulf countries and their future generations will remain a part of Kerala. Christians will continue to dwindle and Muslims will continue fill the vacancies they create in Kerala’s population. To add to this, Muslims, who were given 80% of the minority community quota in educational scholarships, continue to enjoy it even after they have come up economically. The Kerala High Court has recently declared this preferential treatment illegal. The crash in the prizes of cash crops has rendered the Syrians equally deserving of minority quota scholarship as their Muslim brethren. Christians also view with suspicion the clout that the Muslim League has established within the Congress led United Front. So much so, hill area Syrian Christians shifted their allegiance to the Communist led Left Front in the just concluded elections.

That is the context in which the love jihad scare was whipped up. Did the situation warrant it? Not really. But some of the fears that fuelled it need to be impartially looked into. On the whole, the Muslim community coexists harmoniously with others, but there is a sizeable radical fringe which entertains the Jihadi dream. They are active in anti-Christian propaganda. Curiously, the highly visible purdah was alien to Kerala until Wahabi Islam established an upper hand. When Muslim fundamentalists chopped off Prof Joseph’s hand, there was rejoicing among Muslims. One of those who planned the attack was rewarded by his community with victory by a huge margin in a local body election. Ironically, the Syro Malabar hierarchy, which harbours the fear that Muslims could repeat Lebanon in Kerala, then took the side of the attackers and victimised the professor, whose elder sister is a nun, until his wife committed suicide.

There are enough reasons to be watchful against Jihadi Islam getting a foothold in Kerala. And for that, the way has been shown by Pope Francis. Jihadis caused untold miseries to Christians in Iraq. It is happening now in a big way in Africa. But, like Francis of Assisi, the Pope believes that our Crusade has to be one of forgiveness and reconciliation. It is for us to prove that Christian love and reconciliation can win against Jihadi hatred and scheming. But that doesn’t mean we should let our guard down. Jesus said: “Be ready for whatever comes, dressed for action and your lamps lit” (Mt. 12:32)